Lawmakers to Sonics: Don’t give up

OLYMPIA – A day before lawmakers went home last week, a lonely single-engine plane circled the Capitol dome, trailing a huge red banner reading, in part, “Save our Sonics.”

Then lawmakers went home.

Left on the cutting-room floor – for now – was the request for $150 million toward a $300 million renovation of KeyArena. A quarter of the total would come from local taxes, including ones on restaurants and auto rentals. Several Puget Sound investors have offered to come up with $150 million in private money as part of an attempt to keep the Sonics or another professional basketball team in Seattle.

Don’t give up hope, more than half a dozen leaders of the state Senate urged shortly before heading home for the year. (Among them, local Sens. Lisa Brown and Chris Marr, both D-Spokane.) In a letter to the investors, including Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, developer John Stanton and Costco’s Jim Sinegal, the lawmakers said thanks, but we need more time.

For one thing, they said, they want to see if King County will really authorize extending the local taxes. Also, they said, alternative uses for those millions of dollars should be heard. Among the possibilities: money “for the arts, housing, education, youth sports, community and economic development, transportation, Puget Sound cleanup, Husky Stadium and civic centers.”

They’re backing a plan by Gov. Chris Gregoire to study the possibilities for King County projects and report back by Dec. 1.

“This task force should be given the opportunity to perform and complete its work under realistic time constraints,” the letter says. “We believe the short-term and long-term plans laid out earlier this week should send a strong message to you and the NBA that we in the Legislature are serious about keeping professional basketball in Seattle.”

So stay tuned. But here’s what the rest of that airplane’s banner said, circling the Capitol last week: “Next year is too late.”

‘The gift that keeps on giving’

As lawmakers prepare their post-session fliers – paid for by you – you can expect to again hear scary things about a bill that would have charged Washingtonians a yearly fee based on engine size.

Senate Bill 6900, as I’ve written here before, was dead on arrival. It never made it to a vote in either the House or Senate.

Yet it remains a handy political piñata for rural Republicans.

“It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” said Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda.

“It’s wonderful,” chuckled Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane. “It’s already in my session brochure.”

“Talk about lighting up the e-mail,” said freshman Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, who said he got 500 complaints about the bill from his Palouse district alone. “They were going to tax moms with minivans 275 bucks. Where’s the logic in that?”

Supremes on the campaign trail …

A knock on my office door yesterday turned out to be Supreme Court Justice Charles Johnson, announcing that he’s running for re-election.

Johnson, a Tacoma native who now lives in Gig Harbor, is the longest-serving justice on the nine-member court. Now in his 17th year on the high court, he’s seeking another six-year term.

Washingtonians seem to be showing an increased interest in – and willingness to pour money into – Supreme Court races these days. When Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Justice Susan Owens ran for re-election two years ago, they faced bruising and expensive challenges from conservatives running on property-rights platforms.

(An aside: For a time in 2006, there were no less than four Johnsons – none related – either sitting on the court or vying for a seat on it. This surfeit of Johnsons prompted some newsroom chortling and off-color jokes in blogs.)

Johnson, although he has no challenger so far, says he welcomes the increased election scrutiny. The court’s decisions affect individual rights and freedoms “and the balancing of the awesome power of government,” he said.

Also running to keep a high court seat this year: Spokane native Debra Stephens, appointed as a justice just four months ago. Stephens scheduled a 250-person campaign kickoff breakfast this week in Seattle, with Round Two slated for Spokane next week.

Stephens, a widely respected appeals lawyer, has picked a couple of political heavyweights as campaign co-chairs. One is retired Justice Faith Ireland – a champion competitive power lifter, seriously – and retired Justice Richard Guy. Guy, the last member of the high court to hail from Spokane, now lives in Hawaii.

What else they did …

Among the hundreds of bills passed by lawmakers this year:

“HB 2514: Banning people and boats from coming within 300 feet of orca whales.

“SB 6272: Expands financial literacy counseling and education to discourage risky mortgages.

“SB 6818: Requiring state officials to create an easily-searchable Web site that details how state government spends its money. Due date: Jan. 1, 2009.

“HB 2996: Requiring antifreeze to contain a bad-tasting chemical to prevent sweet-craving animals from licking up deadly spills.

“SB 5642: Requiring cigarettes to extinguish themselves if not periodically puffed. The change is aimed at preventing untended cigarettes from starting fires.

“SB 6309: Requiring new cars and trucks, by 2010, to display a label disclosing the vehicle’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

“SB 5959: Creating a new program to assist homeless people and families by providing rent vouchers and housing help.

“SB 6400: Requiring the Department of Corrections to develop a plan for “voluntary, nondenominational moral- and character-building” help for prison inmates.

“HB 1030: Adding a mandatory year in prison for someone convicted of fleeing police, if the chase endangers others.

Can’t get enough of this stuff? A complete list with short summaries of everything that passed Olympia this year is at www.leg.wa.gov/documents/

opr/2008/sinedie.pdf.